Breaking The Habit
by RigorMorticius
Summary: Aardvark Town: When things take an unexpected turn, Zach has no idea what to do with himself. He didn't anticipate- or even consider the possibility of- the situation, and is conflicted within himself- but so are the bros.


**Original A/N:**

FFFFFFUUUUU- This 250 character summary limit is killing me. . Also:

Me: *in the mirror* IT IS A CARTOON. IT IS NOT REAL.

Me: *in my mind* SLURRRRRRRRRRPYYYYYYYYY WAAAAAAAH!

Also, I know in the original ending, Zach was wearing a bathing suit (and a floaty thingy), but this time, he's fully dressed. Otherwise, it'd be awkward. O.o Don't feel bad, Zach, I can't swim either. XD WATER WINGS FTW

**RigorMorticius Edit: Suni sent me this to beta and never even finished chapter one, so now I'm stealing it because I know how to continue it. The part just before Aviva pushes Chris away is Suni's; everything under that (including where she pushes him) is mine.**

* * *

Once they trailed the aardwolf, she led them straight to Zach. Neither brother was terribly surprised. Sometimes, it seemed more like he was following them than coincidence would allow. They knew sometimes he did, but the sheer amount of times that they just HAPPENED to "cross paths" was statistically impossible. They started to emerge from the bush they were peeking out.

"Thanks, aardwolf." Chris said.

"Zach!" Martin yelled, gaining the man's attention. They both stopped short at the look on his face.

"What's wrong with it?" He pointed down. Chris followed where he was pointing.

"What do you mean?" Martin asked, barely noticing the action.

"It won't get up! I think it's sick!" Now he looked. Chris was kneeling down next to a critter with a vest and skullcap on.

"First, you need to deactivate the robotic equipment. It's messing with my bioscanner." Chris said. Zach only did as he was told. Chris pushed the stuff out of the way as Martin also knelt down for a closer look.

"Is that…?" He started, but trailed off.

"Yep." Was the curt reply.

He should have known not to bother Chris when he was busy. He gazed at Slurpy, then back down to the aardvark between them. He stroked her back, careful not to intercept the laser sweeping across her side from Chris' creature pod. She stared up with a glassy gaze.

"She don't look so good." Martin said. Chris wiped the sweat off his forehead, but seemed agitated.

"She's not." He stood. Something attracted his attention, and Martin looked where he was looking- there was a large section dug out of the dirt behind them all, and there was no mistaking the claw scrapes.

"What's wrong with it?" Zach asked again. His eyes flickered up, but Chris had already heard the Tortuga overhead before then.

"She's in v-tach."

"What?"

"Ventricular tachycardia." By that time, the rest of the team was standing there. The girls were next to Chris, and Jimmy had gone over to where Martin still was.

"What?"

"Her heart short circuited due to being overtaxed." Zach hesitated, noting how short his replies were.

"What does that mean?"

"She's dying." The phrase was flat. No emotion, no inflexion. Zach furrowed his brow, cocking his head as though he didn't understand.

"What?" Aviva said, voice rising to a sharp pitch.

"Why?" Koki asked, grabbing his arm.

"Heart failure from exhaustion." He simply pulled away from her and knelt back down beside her, Koki and Aviva following. Zach approached, but stayed a little ways away.

"Well, do something about it!" He was trying to sound commanding, but came off as more panicked than anything.

"There's nothing we can do, Zach." Martin said, as though he were trying to reassure him.

"She won't live long enough to make it to a rescue center, and we can't help her. We're unprepared for this."

Aviva put her hand on Chris' shoulder and moved in close to him.

"She's unconscious." He said, answering everyone's unspoken question.

"What about the baby?" Jimmy asked.

"We'll place him with another family. He'll be alright." Martin said. Chris had scanned her one more time.

"Well…" They knew.

"Now what?" Jimmy asked. They turned their attention to Aviva when she got up and approached Zach. They then cringed when she gave him a rough slap.

"Ooooh!" Chris said, turning away.

"That's gotta hurt…" Jimmy said.

No one expected her to start beating him with both hands.

"You son of a bitch!"

Zach put his arm up and leaned away to protect himself, but lost his balance and fell, and she was right there on top of him. Chris and Martin both got up and jogged over.

"Aviva, that's enough." Chris said, gently but firmly as he bear hugged her to keep her from hitting him anymore. Martin stood Zach up.

"You okay?" He didn't answer, but aside from being in tears, he didn't seem injured. She spat at Zach as Chris dragged her away from him.

"Hey, hey. Come on." He got in front of her. She pointed over his shoulder.

"You know what he did!"

"I know." Chris gently pushed her arm down and pulled her into him.

"He didn't mean it."

She pushed him away roughly.

"What do you mean, he didn't mean it?" She yelled.

"Things weren't supposed to turn out this way, right Zach?"

When they turned to him, Martin was kneeling beside him, trying to get a response. Zach simply gazed at the corpse on the ground blankly. Chris approached them.

"Look," Martin said, holding up his wrist to show his creature pod.

Koki recognized the background of the brain wave scanner behind two horizontal lines.

"What does that mean?"

"Nobody's home. Zach's not even on this planet anymore," Chris said.

"So what are you saying?" Aviva had her arms crossed and kept her distance.

"Do these look like the brain waves of someone who did this on purpose?" Martin asked.

"Look at it!"

Her voice was shrill, and she flung her arm at the deceased aardvark. Slurpy sniffed and licked at the fallen animal to no avail. Chris put his arm around her shoulders.

"Aviva, we're all upset. All of us," He said, gesturing to Zach.

"You have to realize that Zach…"

"He what, Chris?"

She pushed his arm off stepped back.

"Are you going to tell me he has some kind of mental thing and I'm supposed to feel sorry for him?"

"Yes and no. I'm not asking you to pity him. I'm not even asking you not to be angry with him. I'm just asking you to understand that he didn't mean for this to happen. In case you haven't noticed, he has the emotional maturity of a four year old. There's a reason for that."

"He's an entitled pendejo, that's why!"

"I have no idea what you just called him, and I probably don't want to know, but that's not it, and now's not the time to bring that up."

"Guys," Martin said.

They both turned. Now Zach looked apprehensive, and the shock had seemed to have dissipated. Chris looked back at Slurpy. He was nudging his mother with his nose. It physically pained him to watch, and he turned back to Zach. For some reason, he was trying to suppress his emotions, without really understanding why. Zach looked up at Martin and pointed to the aardvarks and tried to say something, but only gave a weak whimper.

"Yep," Martin said, softly, as though to a child. He kept this tone in his voice throughout.

They turned back to the pair of animals, the full force of the entire incident finally hitting Zach, horror reflecting in his green eyes.

"But…" He said weakly, tears forming in his eyes.

"I didn't mean to…"

Chris looked down at the ground in front of him when Zach started to break down. He knew Aviva was watching him, but he couldn't face her.

"Now you understand what I told you, don't you?"

"What?" Zach said, interrupted by a sob.

"Remember 20 years ago, I told you that you didn't know what you were getting into, and that something would happen that you couldn't handle? This is what I was warning you about. I was hoping you wouldn't have to learn the hard way, but… here it is, and this is what we're dealing with now."

As Zach pressed into him to be held, hiding his face in the blonde's shoulder, Martin looked Aviva directly in the eye with a questioning look, but she still wasn't biting. Clearly frustrated, he only turned his attention back to the Goth and starting patting him on the back.

"Twenty years ago?" Aviva asked, quietly.

"We grew up with him, remember?" Chris responded quietly. When she turned to him, his face was wet.

"We were so hoping it would never get this far…"

He was clearly choking back his full emotion. It almost seemed as if Zach was getting to him more than Slurpy's dead mom.

"You wanna go home?"

Zach nodded on his shoulder.

"I thought so. Come on."

They both stood and started walking towards the black jet in the background. Chris and Aviva followed suit, heading for the Tortuga. She looked around.

"Where are Koki and Jimmy?"

"On the ship already, I guess."

His voice wavered. She stopped and pulled his shoulder back, turning him to face her, although he kept his eyes fixed to the ground in front of him.

"What's with you, Chris? You seem less upset about Slurpy than over that-"

"Don't," He snapped his gaze up to hers, anger flashing in his eyes.

"… call him names. I've had enough of people making derogatory remarks about him before they know his story."

She started backing away as he advanced.

"If you think for one second I don't feel bad about Slurpy, then you don't know me as well as I thought you did. However, you don't know what happened to him, you don't understand him the way Martin and I do, you don't know the absolute hell that man went through that made him the way he is, and you refuse to get it in your head that his plan went completely awry. Whatever you're about to call him, you may as well label yourself with it. Is he innocent? No, but he didn't intend for that to happen, either. I will not stand here and listen to you say things like that about him because you want to be ignorant."

He only turned and marched off.

"And don't you dare, Aviva Corcovado, blame him for anything I just said to you."

He then silently entered the ship. She just stood for a moment, fuming, knowing she better not follow him. A few minutes later, she was aware of someone standing behind her.

"Chris get on to you?"

She answered back with rapid fire nonsense that was probably profanity-laden. Martin put his hand on her shoulder when she finished.

"He's just as upset as everyone else. This is just what he does. Although you should take whatever he said seriously, because it's the only time he's really truthful about things. I know he hurt your feelings- he's hurt mine on occasion, and I'm used to it- but he was telling the undeniable truth. He'll come back with his tail between his legs. He always does."

He rubbed her shoulder and led her onto the ship. The three already aboard were spread out- Jimmy laid in his hammock with his back turned, Koki just stared at the keys on her station, and Chris was sitting at the teleporter with his head buried in his arms. Martin slipped away from Aviva and touched Jimmy's shoulder. Now she noticed Martin had Slurpy under his arm. Jimmy turned his head back enough to see Martin from the corner of his eye.

"Let's find this guy a hole, huh?" He said to everyone.

Wordlessly, Jimmy got up and disappeared into the cockpit, and Koki woke the terminal.

"Come on, guys, I know that it's a tragic thing, but it'll be okay," Martin said.

"Guess nobody feels like talking," Koki said, flatly.

"We'll find Slurpy a home, and he'll make new friends, and he'll have babies of his own one day," Martin said, trying to cheer them up.

"Shut up, Martin," Chris quipped sharply without looking up.

Koki looked up to see the expression on his face. She'd never heard Chris talk to anyone like that before. Martin wasn't anything but concerned for his brother. He put Slurpy down and went over to Chris, putting his hand on his back.

"No, I don't want to talk about it."

Martin lingered for a few seconds longer before kissing his brother's head and walking back over to Koki.

"There's another den 30 miles ahead of us."

"Any other babies?"

"Two, actually. Looks like she's already adopted someone else's baby."

"Nope, sometimes they just have two, although it's super rare. Humans have more multiple births than aardvarks do."

Koki turned back to him.

"How long do you think it'll take?"

"Well, he's eating solid food, so he's already pretty old. He'll be moving out soon, although he'll stick close to the others."

"I don't mean him. I meant…"

She looked over at Aviva and whispered, "…Zach."

Martin kept his voice barely above a whisper.

"That, I don't know. He's pretty shaken up about it. I barely got him into the cockpit before he gave out. I had to physically pick him up off the floor and sit him down. He may not even leave the ship once it lands."

"What are you going to do?"

Martin shook his head, eyes watering.

"I don't know, Koki. I can't let him stay like that. I know I'm supposed to hate him. I know I'm supposed to rub it in his face and let him wallow in his own filth, but… I can't do it."

She gave him a small smile.

"You have to save him."

He just wiped his face, unable to respond, or even look at her anymore. She grabbed his hand.

"That's what makes you more than just a hero, Martin. You care. The hero would hate him, but you forgave him then."

"I had to," He choked out.

"It wouldn't matter who it was; I'd do the same thing for Donita and Gourmand. But Zach is… different."

He shook his head slowly.

"And what's the purpose of being a hero if you're going to hate anyone? Isn't that hypocritical? I mean, the whole hero thing is about teaching everyone to do the right thing and stopping bad guys, but where is it written that a hero proper hates his nemesis? Heroes should be teaching people to forgive people and love them unconditionally, not that it's okay to hate anyone for any reason."

She stood, still holding his hand, and wrapped her free arm around his shoulders, which he reciprocated. Even on her toes, she almost couldn't reach him. He was 5'10", and she was only 5'4".

"That's why we call ourselves creature rescuers instead of heroes."

She kissed him on the cheek before slipping off to tell Jimmy to land. He sat down in her chair. After a few moments, he felt a hand on his shoulder, and knew she wasn't back that fast. He turned back anyways.

"You were behind me the whole time, weren't you?"

Aviva only nodded. She then crossed her arms, but he couldn't tell what she was feeling.

"I just don't understand."

"Understand what?"

"How you can just forgive someone like that."

"Hate's never the answer. It doesn't change anything except the person doing the hating. He never forgave his father, and you see what he turned into, and you know what it did? Nothing. It didn't take it all back, it didn't make his father apologize to him, and it didn't bring his mother back. All it did was amplify his pain, and Zach doesn't deal with that very well."

He crossed his arms and looked down.

"All hate did for him was make him remember everything he was trying to forget. All it did was give him revenge fantasies that he knew he was too afraid to carry out. Not once did that ever work out in his favor. All it did was consume him. He's not at all the person he pretends to be- Chris and I knew him before he changed, and he's nothing like who he wants you to think he is."

"I'll have to see that to believe it."

"The problem is you already have, and you don't believe it. I know you. If he were here now, you'd accuse him of faking and one of you would have to leave. The last time I saw any hint of who he really is, he was three. I wasn't but five myself, but I knew it then. I saw his dad being mean to him, and even then I put two and two together. He built up this persona and hid himself, trying to protect himself from it all, but…" He just shook his head.

"What happened to him?"

He didn't know whether to tell her or not. He knew from experience she liked to throw things in your face, and he wasn't sure she wouldn't use it to hurt Zach with if she ever saw him again, and that was a chance he didn't want to take. He knew that this alone was going to destroy him if he and Chris didn't do something. Besides, he'd always felt that once he was on his own, Zach had let up a little, and let some of his true self back out, but not all of it, or even a little. The flashes here and there he'd seen were more than likely accidental anyways.

"You guys ready to let Slurpy go?" Koki asked.

Martin and Aviva both turned back, and were pleasantly surprised to find Jimmy standing beside her. He was still somber, but at least he was present and paying attention, unlike when they first went in. Koki had her arm around his shoulders, and he had his arm around her waist. Martin stood and looked to Chris to find him already holding Slurpy.

"You ready, bro?"

"Nope," He said, smiling to show he'd said the opposite of what he meant.

"Come on, Slurpy. Let's go make some friends," Chris said, petting him on the forehead with his free hand.

* * *

Whenever she resurfaces, she can write her own version. This one is mine. [/joke]


End file.
